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Cisco, NetApp and VMware Collaborate to Deliver New Capabilities for the Dynamic Data Centre

NetApp annouces they are expanding their long-standing collaboration with Cisco and VMware to deliver new capabilities for the virtualized data centre

27 January, 2010 10:48

<p>Cisco, NetApp and VMware Collaborate to Deliver New Capabilities for the Dynamic Data Centre</p><p>New Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture Enhances Security When Sharing Data Centre Resources Across Virtualized and Enterprise Cloud Environments</p><p>Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 27 January 2010 – As enterprises move toward a data centre that is 100 percent virtualized, Cisco, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) today announced that they are expanding their long-standing collaboration to deliver new design architectures that help customers evolve virtualized data centres to be more efficient, dynamic and secure. The three companies introduced an end-to-end Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture that provides enhanced security in cloud environments by isolating the information technology resources and applications of different clients, business units or departments that share a common IT infrastructure. As part of their collaboration, Cisco, NetApp and VMware will also offer a co-operative support model for these pretested and validated design architectures to help customers quickly build a unified, virtualized infrastructure.</p><p>“It’s clear that a tremendous opportunity exists for Cisco, NetApp and VMware to enable real change in the data centre,” said Tom Georgens, president and CEO of NetApp. “Our visions are aligned around the concept of a dynamic data centre that will be the foundation of cloud computing and that will enable enterprises, integrators and service providers to deliver IT as a service [ITaaS] . In this scenario, IT becomes a dynamic asset that is more efficient and can better adapt to changing business needs. This new era of IT has stringent infrastructure requirements that our companies are ready to meet today—together.”</p><p>“Virtualization of the network, server and storage infrastructure is radically reshaping today's data centre,” said Paul Maritz, president and CEO, VMware. “The dynamic data centre built on VMware® vSphere™, along with Cisco and NetApp® technologies, will provide the foundation for both private and public clouds and the ability to move data and applications between these clouds. A shared virtual infrastructure requires that resources for different tenants are isolated while delivering on promised service levels. We have integrated our technology with Cisco and NetApp not only to accelerate our customers’ journey through their data centre transition, but also to deliver an outstanding customer experience.”</p><p>“A unified architecture approach is more important than ever before,” said Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business at Cisco. “Our joint vision with NetApp and VMware centres on delivering a unified architecture for customers to design and build a complete, virtualized data centre that will streamline operations and improve their business resilience.”</p><p>Peter O’Connor, Area Vice President for NetApp South East Asia Pacific, said, “From a local perspective this announcement presents an exciting opportunity for NetApp and our ANZ partners. Our partnership with Cisco and VMware will turn the cloud into a reality for many customers and service providers by supporting new and more efficient business models. We look forward to taking this solution to market in Australia and New Zealand and working with our joint partner communities to provide customers with compelling Dynamic Data Centre solutions.”</p><p>New Secure Multi-tenancy Meets Virtualization and Enterprise Cloud Security Requirements</p><p>Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture is an end-to-end, validated design architecture that isolates IT resources for enhanced security in shared virtual and enterprise cloud environments. The design architecture helps enterprise customers, systems integrators and service providers develop internal and external cloud services that isolate clients, business units, departments or security zones for enhanced security across the computing, networking, storage and management layers of a unified infrastructure. The Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture provides details about implementing and configuring the architecture, as well as best practices for building and managing best-in-class solutions from Cisco, NetApp and VMware. This validated design architecture significantly increases business agility by helping IT administrators to establish the appropriate quality of service for each resource layer and to deliver consistent service performance levels for the applications in each layer.</p><p>“Examworks requires a flexible and dynamic infrastructure that allows us to rapidly integrate disparate technologies, virtualize key applications, and then offer them as a service to our broad family of companies via a secure, internal cloud infrastructure,” said Brian Denton, chief technology officer, Examworks. “By integrating best-in-class technologies, the Cisco, NetApp, and VMware platform has delivered unprecedented agility, efficiency, and cost savings. A validated Secure Multi-tenancy architecture from these three industry leaders will be a necessity for companies looking to develop cloud services that isolate data across a highly secure, shared virtualized infrastructure.”</p><p>The Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture is based on Cisco Nexus® Series Switches and the Cisco® Unified Computing System, NetApp FAS storage with MultiStore® and NetApp Data Motion™, and VMware vSphere and vShield™ Zones. The design reference architecture has been jointly tested and validated as a Cisco Validated Design so customers can quickly assess their needs and deploy integrated solutions from Cisco, NetApp and VMware that meet the stringent requirements of their dynamic data centres. The Cisco Validated Design Guide can be viewed at www.netapp.com/us/cisco-vmware/.</p><p>“The IT industry is in the midst of a radical transformation as companies look for flexible, unified computing architectures that can deliver dynamic, on-demand services cost effectively,” said Russ Fellows, senior partner, Evaluator Group. “The driving force behind this shift is the need to align IT costs with business by shifting from static single-purpose IT systems to new on-demand IT services available in the data centres of the future. These pretested and validated architectures will help IT organisations achieve their goals faster, while minimising the risk of moving to a new virtualized data centre.”</p><p>Cooperative Professional Services and Support to Enable ITaaS</p><p>As customers embark on their journey to ITaaS, Cisco, NetApp and VMware will provide a co-operative set of professional services to deliver an outstanding customer experience and help channel partners deploy a Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture with the least risk to their customers’ current environment.</p><p>As part of this collaboration, Cisco, NetApp and VMware also introduced a global 24-hour cooperative support model. This model offers customers a more streamlined response from Cisco, NetApp and VMware to identify and solve potential issues related to the solutions used in the Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture. This saves customers time and resources when they request product and technology support.</p><p>Availability</p><p>The unified storage, unified computing, networking and virtualization solutions that make up the Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture are available today from Cisco, NetApp and VMware and in production data centres around the world. Cooperative professional services and support are also available today. To learn more about how Cisco, NetApp and VMware and their mutual ecosystem of partners, including channel partners, systems integrators and service providers, are working together to help customers build and design their dynamic data centres, visit www.netapp.com/us/cisco-vmware/.</p><p>Virtual Event</p><p>Cisco, NetApp and VMware will host a virtual event to discuss how the companies are working together to help customers transform their virtualized data centres with the Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture. Hear an executive discussion with Tony Bates, Cisco; Tom Georgens, NetApp; Paul Maritz, VMware; and a special guest. Customers will also be able to participate in a live Q&amp;A session with technical experts from all three companies. To register, visit: http://www.imaginevirtuallyanything.com/f20100126.html?referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netapp.com%2Fus%2F&amp;REF_SOURCE=netappsite .</p><p>Partner Quotes</p><p>Cisco, NetApp, and VMware are also working with many channel partners, systems integrators, and service providers that deliver best-in-class services that will use the Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture and cooperative support model to deliver customers a completely integrated solution and quickly help them transform their data centres into a shared virtualized infrastructure.</p><p>Cognizant</p><p>“Enterprises are actively evaluating cloud computing to optimise costs and increase business agility,” said TP Vincent, vice president, Technology Industry Practice, Cognizant. “While existing public clouds can offer new business models, we expect enterprises to move towards other cloud models such as private clouds and hybrid clouds, for example. This calls for industry-proven solutions that offer virtualization of infrastructure at all levels—servers, network and storage. The Secure Multi-tenancy solution from NetApp, Cisco and VMware addresses this requirement. The guidance on this integrated framework enables us to provide world-class cloud solutions and helps our clients to maximise business efficiencies through the cloud.”</p><p>ECCOM Network Storage System Ltd.</p><p>“Cisco, NetApp and VMware are the top networking, storage and virtualization vendors in the IT industry,” said Yue Liu, GM of ECCOM Network Storage System Ltd. “Their customers have achieved great success based on their advanced products and technology. Their joint collaboration will have an even greater impact to their customers and the industry as a whole with one complete solution for data centre and cloud infrastructures. As the professional service and solution provider for information infrastructure, Cisco, NetApp and VMware will enable ECCOM to provide an outstanding experience to our mutual customers in building their next generation of data centres.”</p><p>ePlus Technology</p><p>“Virtualized data centres empower organisations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and better react to today’s dynamic business climate,” said Chris Finney, vice president, Data Centre &amp; Systems, ePlus Technology. “Cloud computing is the next step in the data centre and requires best-in-class technology partners to continue to drive this transformation. ePlus is pleased to work with Cisco, NetApp and VMware to create leading cloud solutions backed by our own data centre solutions capabilities.”</p><p>Forsythe</p><p>“Cloud computing and the move from a physical to a virtual infrastructure continue to be among the most significant IT transformations we see today,” comments Richard Zimmermann, Forsythe vice president of Network Solutions. “As an IT infrastructure integrator, Forsythe has been helping its customers integrate disparate technologies in complex physical, and now also virtual, environments for a long time. Our focus is on helping clients optimise the cost of operating their data centres. Accordingly, we are excited to see collaborations such as Cisco, NetApp and VMware that strive to simplify customers’ implementation and operation of converged virtual environments.”</p><p>INX</p><p>“INX believes that cloud computing is the next wave of IT infrastructure,” said Jon Groves, vice president of Professional Services, INX. “Enterprises are looking to cloud computing to help reduce costs, increase business agility and deliver an efficient environment through a virtualized, shared infrastructure. We are very pleased to be working with world-class technology partners such as Cisco, NetApp and VMware to provide customers with best-of-breed cloud solutions backed by an experienced IT services leader.”</p><p>Long View Systems</p><p>“Enterprises are being called on to cut costs, scrutinise new investments and become highly efficient in everything they do—and nowhere more so than in the data centre,” said Kent MacDonald, vice president, Infrastructure Solutions, Long View Systems. “Long View Systems is excited to see the collaboration of our strategic partners Cisco, NetApp and VMware uniting three IT visionaries that have changed the way that organisations manage their IT infrastructure. This is not a vision, but a proven ability to execute together to drive down costs and improve availability and responsiveness to business challenges.”</p><p>MSI Systems Integrators</p><p>“Cloud computing is the next step for organisations looking to decrease costs, increase productivity and provide agile IT services for their business,” said Tony Regier, executive vice president, Storage Solutions, MSI Systems Integrators. “Sound solutions include technologies from industry-leading IT manufacturers and systems integrators such as MSI whose focus is on providing efficient and optimised IT infrastructures. The relationship between Cisco, NetApp and VMware allows MSI to provide world-class, cloud-based solutions for ourclients.”</p><p>Presidio, Inc.</p><p>“Virtualized cloud computing has proven its ability to reduce capital expenditures in the data centre while significantly improving reliability,scalability and management,” said Kevin Watkins, vice president, Engineering, Presidio, Inc. “When our customers extend the concepts of virtualization to their network and storage infrastructures, the service improvements and capital savings are even greater. Presidio is very pleased to be working with Cisco, NetApp and VMware as we provide virtualized data centre solutions for our clients. Their advanced technologies, combined with Presidio's architecture and engineering capabilities, result in some of the most advanced, cost-effective data centre solutions in the industry.”</p><p>Trace|3</p><p>“Businesses look to Trace|3 to help reduce costs, increase business agility and deliver more efficient IT environments,” said Sandy Salty, director of Business Development, Trace|3. “Cisco, NetApp and VMware allow us to provide customers with best-of-breed design architectures.”</p><p>World Wide Technology</p><p>“Enterprises are looking to public and private cloud infrastructures to increase business agility and deliver a highly efficient computing environment,” said Bob Olwig, vice president, Corporate Business Development, World Wide Technology. “World Wide Technology is very pleased to join forces with our world-class technology partners Cisco, NetApp and VMware to provide our government, commercial, and service-provider customers with best-of-breed, virtualized cloud solutions.”</p><p>About Cisco</p><p>Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.</p><p>About NetApp</p><p>NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and achieve outstanding cost efficiency. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.</p><p>About VMware</p><p>VMware delivers solutions for business infrastructure virtualization that enable IT organisations to energise businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform—VMware vSphere™—customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 150,000 customers and 22,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization, which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com .</p><p>Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Nexus and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, MultiStore, and NetApp Data Motion are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between NetApp and any other company. VMware, VMware vShield, and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.</p><p>Media Contacts:</p><p>Linda Horiuchi</p><p>Cisco</p><p>+61 2 8446 6343</p><p>lhoriuch@cisco.com</p><p>Rachel York</p><p>Max Australia (for NetApp)</p><p>+61 2 9954 3492</p><p>rachel.york@maxaustralia.com.au</p><p>Emma Rogers</p><p>VMware</p><p>+61 2 9293 5650</p><p>erogers@vmware.com</p>

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